The ASEAN region’s member nations vary widely, particularly in the development of their economies, and the openness of their governments, according to Russ Jacobs, who is director and corporate counsel of intellectual property for Starbucks. The unifying primary challenge, however, is enforcement in the face of widespread counterfeit goods throughout the region. The past three years have shown improved enforcement efforts in the ASEAN. “I think that part of [this] is the intended harmonisation with the Economic Community coming into place and the sharing of best practices across the region,” says Jacobs.
The ASEAN Economic Community is part of the region’s effort toward economic integration, and encourages the kind of exchange of practices across borders. So, countries with less advanced economies and infrastructures — such as Myanmar, where border control and IP legislation are almost nonexistent—might model their IP policies after countries with more robust economies and systems in place, such as Thailand.
The ASEAN Economic Community has also contributed to and encouraged technological tools to facilitate better regional enforcement, such as ASEAN TMview.
The publicly searchable online database catalogues design and trade mark registrations throughout the region. “Right now there’s information from most of the jurisdictions, but it’s pretty uneven in terms of the robustness of the information” from country to country, says Jacobs. It is, however, a step in the right direction to bolster the technological resources available to the examiners of some of the ASEAN resources.
Greater economic integration in the region is improving the mobility of helpful information between countries, but it may also create problems: “If the Economic Community has freedom of movement of goods as a principle, then that may result in counterfeiters trying to find the ports with less enforcement within the region,” making these goods much harder to detect and stop counterfeit imports, according to Jacobs.
The ASEAN region’s countries have relatively robust systems for the protections of indigenous and geographical rights. According to Jacobs, the process of registering and finding the registrations of such marks is quite efficient in the region.
But, partly due the relative newness of these kinds of registrations and laws relating to them, there is often confusion within the IP offices about whose permission is required to use, for instance, a geographical indication to market a product.
“So, the idea is there and it’s good, but it’s just unclear how to actually execute it and follow through,” says Jacobs. This is because the IP officers often have little more clarity than the foreign brand owners themselves.
The effect that the establishment of the Economic Community will have on the protection of IP in the ASEAN region may be unclear and inconsistent as of yet, but “I do still see a receptiveness,” says Jacobs. “If you do go proactively to the government authorities, they are very willing to work with IP owners.”
This article is part of our focus on ASEAN. Read all articles in this series at managingip.com/asean.
